Cleopatra V Tryphaena was a Queen of Egypt until her mysterious disappearance from the records in 69 BC. If, as some scholars believe, her disappearance is attributable to her death, then it must be assumed that she had a daughter also called Cleopatra Tryphaena.[1]

She is called Cleopatra VI Tryphaena by some modern historians[4] and she would have been an older sister of the famous Cleopatra VII.[1] If so, her birth year would correctly be c. 75 BC. The only instance she is mentioned in historical sources is by Porphyry. He says that when Ptolemy XII fled to Rome to avoid an uprising in Alexandria against him (in 58 BC), Berenice IV took control of Ptolemaic Egypt and ruled alongside her sister, Cleopatra Tryphaena.[5][6] Strabo, however, states that Ptolemy had three daughters, of whom only the eldest (Berenice) was legitimate.[7] This suggests that the Cleopatra Tryphaena referred to by Porphyry may have been Ptolemy's wife, not his daughter. Some, though not all, experts now identify Cleopatra VI with Cleopatra V of Egypt, Ptolemy's wife.[4]